Thank you for contacting me regarding the impeachment of Vice
President Cheney. I appreciate hearing from you.

As you know, impeachment is a very serious matter. The
Constitution sets forth the general principles which control the
procedural aspects of impeachment, vesting the power to impeach in the
House of Representatives, while giving the Senate the power to try
impeachments. In any case, the proceedings would have to be initiated
by the Republican leadership on the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The focus of the impeachment inquiry is to determine whether the person

involved has engaged in treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors. If the House Committee on the Judiciary, by majority
vote, determines that grounds for impeachment exist, a resolution
impeaching the individual in question and setting forth specific
allegations of misconduct, in one or more articles of impeachment, will

be reported to the full House.

While I am disappointed and disgusted with much of what the
Republican Administration has done, or should I say, failed to do for
the
American people, I must weigh matters of impeachment with extreme
caution. Should impeachment legislation come to the House floor for
debate and a vote, I will be sure to keep your views in mind.

Again, thank you for being in touch. For news on current federal
legislative issues, please visit my website at
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.house.gov/dingell">www.house.gov/dingell;
you
can also sign up there to receive my e-newsletter. In the meantime,
please do not hesitate to contact me again if I may be of assistance
with
this or any other matter of concern.

As gratifying as it might be to impeach and then try Bush and Cheney, it would run too great a risk of backfiring. This crew will be done and gone pretty soon, serving only as a cautionary example of ignorance, hubris, zealotry, and the abuses of power. Impeachment at this point would run the risk of creating a backlash amongst the electorate just in time for the ’08 elections. I think that the most productive course would be for the Democratic congress to keep the public’s attention focused on this administration’s various crimes and misdemeanors, using the power of the congressional subpoena and hearings, but not to push things to the point that the Dems themselves become the detested political object. Remember what happened when the Republican congress shut down the government in a budget dispute w/ Clinton: the Republicans lost. And then they lost bigger when they foolishly sought to impeach Clinton. There are too many urgent issues — issues that will require thoughtful and swift action — for us to waste our time stoking partisan vitriol (again, as gratifying as it might be to hang these scoundrels high).

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